Excerpt
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Last week, President Obama announced a new initiative to help level the playing field for young men of color.
In Oakland California, one program is already under way.
Aarti Shahani of KQED in San Francisco reports.
OK, it didn’t say after the third element.
ARTIE SHAHANI, KQED: These teenagers spend hours glued to their computer screens. But they’re not playing games or doing their homework, for that matter. They’re studying something they’re not taught at school: computer coding.
They’re picking up Python, and HTML5, and Ruby on Rails.
Johnnel White is a sophomore at Vallejo High.
JOHNNEL WHITE: It’s a new language. It’s like you learn — like you’re learning Spanish, but you’re learning something else other than Spanish, letters and numbers and symbols.
AARTI SHAHANI: This is the Hidden Genius Project, a small nonprofit that’s working to recruit young black men into the high-tech sector. It’s one of the few parts of the economy that’s booming and aching for diversity.
The boys have to apply to the program. And, if accepted, they commit to classes twice a week in Oakland.
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